On March 15, employees at the resort contacted the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) after spotting the cub along a ski trail without its mother.
Resort staff managed to guide the bear off the trail and into nearby woods.
Environmental Conservation Officers (ECOs) Milliron and Palmateer responded to the scene and discovered the cub hiding in tall grass adjacent to the ski trail. With help from Friends of the Feathered and Furry Wildlife Center (FFF), the cub was safely captured as it attempted to climb a small tree.
The cub, believed to be more than a year old and weighing only 15 pounds at the time, was transported to a rehabilitation center. There, it will receive care until it is healthy enough to be released back into the wild.
FFF reports that the young bear is improving and now weighs approximately 21 pounds.
U.S. egg prices increased again last month to reach a new record-high of $6.23 per dozen despite President Donald Trump’s predictions, a drop in wholesale prices and no egg farms having bird flu outbreaks.
The increase reported Thursday in the Consumer Price Index means consumers and businesses that rely on eggs might not get much immediate relief. Demand for eggs is typically elevated until after Easter, which falls on April 20.
Eggs are displayed in a grocery store in Carmel, Ind., Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
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Industry experts were expecting the index to reflect a drop in retail egg prices because wholesale egg prices dropped significantly in March. University of Arkansas agricultural economist Jada Thompson said the wholesale prices did not start dropping until mid-March, so there may not have been enough time for the average price for the month to decline even though prices started to fall at the end of the month. And grocery stores may not have immediately passed on the lower prices.
Bird flu outbreaks were cited as the major cause of price spikes in January and February after more than 30 million egg-laying chickens were killed to prevent the spread of the disease. Only 2.1 million birds were slaughtered in March and none of them were on egg farms.
The farms that had fall outbreaks have been working to resume egg production after sanitizing their barns and raising new flocks, but chickens must be about six months old before they start laying eggs. Thompson said those farms did not come back online as quickly as anticipated.
Eggs are displayed in a grocery store in Carmel, Ind., Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
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In the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture numbers, there were only about 285 million hens laying eggs nationwide as of March 1, down from 293 million the previous month. Before the outbreak, the flock typically numbered more than 315 million.
Since the current bird flu outbreak began, more than 168 million birds have been slaughtered, most of them egg-laying chickens. Any time a bird gets sick, the entire flock is killed to help keep bird flu from spreading. That can have an effect on the egg supply because massive egg farms may have millions of birds.
The disease is difficult to control because it is spread easily through the droppings of wild birds that carry the avian flu virus. Bird flu has also inflected other animals, including dairy cattle and several dozen farm workers but officials maintain it is not a significant threat to humans.
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Eggs are displayed in a grocery store in Carmel, Ind., Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Egg price politics
Trump tried to take credit for the lower wholesale egg prices the USDA reported in recent weeks.
“The egg prices they were going through the sky. And you did a fantastic job,” Trump said to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins before he announced the details of his tariffs at the White House last week. ”Now we have lots of eggs and they are much cheaper now.”
But experts say the president’s plan to fight bird flu by focusing on strengthening egg farmers’ defenses against the virus is likely to be more of a long-term help.
“I think there are lots of people who are looking to see the egg prices coming down because they wanted to call it a win. And I think it’s a loss for everybody. I think we all want to see egg prices come down,” Thompson said.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance both trumpeted the overall decline in inflation last month before most of Trump’s tariffs took effect, but they did not directly address egg prices.
Rollins on Thursday suggested the rise in egg prices is temporary. She pointed to the overall consumer price index showing a slight dip in prices for goods and services across the U.S. economy in March and suggested egg prices will soon follow.
“We’re also moving into the Super Bowl of eggs, which is Easter,” Rollins said. “So from the beginning, I’ve said this is sort of the high price for retail for eggs, but we feel very confident that will continue to come back down.”
Earlier this week, Trump said the annual White House egg roll would use real eggs again this year despite the high prices. Egg farmers typically donate more than 30,000 eggs for the event.
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Eggs are displayed in a grocery store in Carmel, Ind., Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Egg prices around the country
U.S. egg prices did began falling in mid-March, according to Datasembly, a market research company that tracks prices at thousands of stores. Datasembly said eggs averaged $5.98 per dozen the week beginning March 16 and dropped to $5.51 the week beginning March 30.
But prices vary widely around the country, depending on the location of recent bird flu outbreaks and some state laws requiring eggs to be cage-free. At a Walmart in Richmond, California, a dozen eggs were $6.34 on Thursday. In Omaha, Nebraska, Walmart was selling eggs for $4.97 per dozen. California requires eggs sold to be cage-free; Nebraska doesn’t.
Egg prices are still expected to decline further later this spring, but the latest numbers could also increase scrutiny of Cal-Maine Foods, which provides 20% of the nation’s eggs, and other large egg producers.
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Earlier this week, Cal-Maine acknowledged it is being investigated by the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice, which is looking into egg price increases. Cal-Maine said it is cooperating with the investigation.
In its most recent quarter, which ended March 1, Cal-Maine said its net income more than tripled to $508.5 million compared to the same period a year ago. The company said its revenue nearly doubled to $1.42 billion, largely because of higher egg prices.
Faking it
The price of real eggs has some consumers turning to fake ones for Easter crafts this year. Craft retailer Michaels said its craft egg kit, which features a dozen plastic eggs for $2.49, is a top seller and has sold three times faster than the company expected.
Farms across the U.S. are still struggling to contain the spread of avian flu. The virus has infected farms in all 50 states since the beginning of the outbreak, according to the CDC. Two states — Pennsylvania and Georgia — have recently declared themselves bird-flu free, after stepping up testing efforts and biosecurity protocols. Yet the ongoing spread nationwide — both on factory farms and from infectious migratory birds — raises questions about what a “bird-flu free” announcement really means for the U.S. food system.
Achieving “free from bird flu” status requires strict biosecurity protocols and significant collaboration between local, state and federal authorities, according to industry researchers. The USDA sets national guidelines for monitoring and testing, which each state adapts to its specific needs. In other words, states can implement their own testing strategies, but these are based on USDA guidelines, and it’s the USDA that confirms the findings.
No matter how thorough the protocol, Corinne Bromfield, a University of Missouri extension swine veterinarian with a background in biosecurity, says even the best biosecurity plan on paper is still very difficult to enact on an actual farm. “For something that is transmitted by wild birds, we can only take the steps that we can control,” Bromfield tells Sentient.
Tom Tabler, extension poultry specialist at the University of Tennessee Extension Service, told Sentient by email that the steps for containment include “quarantine, depopulation, disposal, cleaning, disinfecting, testing and time,” including both state and federal guidelines.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania, ranked 8th in total dairy production in the U.S, took a proactive testing approach to prevent the spread of bird flu in dairy herds. Since late November 2024, the state’s Animal Diagnostic Laboratory System has tested over 22,000 bulk milk samples from nearly all of its dairy farms, according to the state’s official press release. Pennsylvania has remained one of 33 states with no confirmed cases of bird flu in cattle, at least as of this publication date, according to USDA data.
When avian influenza is first detected in a flock, producers are supposed to report sick or dead birds to their state veterinarian or a state animal health official, according to USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) guidelines. If the virus is confirmed, the USDA steps in to assist with the inventory for indemnity, investigation and depopulation.
Here, the term depopulation means wiping out an entire flock at once, as quickly and cheaply as possible. Producers often rely on an inexpensive slaughter strategy called “ventilation shut down plus.” Most birds die of heat stroke or suffocation during the process, with any surviving birds typically killed by hand. Producers also must create a flock plan, which should include steps for getting rid of the virus and getting the farm back into production.
To eliminate bird flu in U.S. dairy herds, the USDA has developed a National Milk Testing Strategy (NMTS) that includes a combination of silo monitoring at dairy processing plants and mandatory testing for interstate movement of lactating dairy cattle.
A state must complete at least four rounds of monthly testing with negative results in order to achieve official “unaffected” status. Pennsylvania is one of three states that, as of this publication date, has been listed as “unaffected” on the NMTS page. If a state’s dairy herd tests positive, the producer is supposed to quickly detect and respond to affected herds, including increasing biosecurity protocols and using contact tracing to pinpoint the spread.
These strategies help to mitigate the spread of bird flu, but maintaining bird-flu free status is an ongoing challenge that can be undone at any time.
Biosecurity Protocols Can Be Quickly Undone
Much like any other virus, bird flu won’t be deterred by a border on a map. The virus is unpredictable, threatening to resurface at any time. Containing bird flu spread then requires constant vigilance, as experts tell Sentient that any lapse in biosecurity can undo years of efforts.
Even the best on-farm protocols can’t control for wild birds entirely. “We’re doing everything that we can to minimize the risk to the animals that are under our control,” Bromfield says, “but we also have this added layer of animals that are not under our control.”
Pennsylvania state officials are aware of the challenge, it seems. “We are not out of the woods yet, and the threat demands that we keep our guard up,” Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said in the February 12 press release.
States must remain prepared to implement emergency control measures at a moment’s notice — ready to establish control zones around affected farms and halt the movement of chickens and cows.
“We’re always going to have migrating animals that happen to come through areas that we live in or our animals live in,” Bromfield says.
Tabler, a poultry scientist, had a similar warning. “Migratory birds or a lapse in biosecurity could easily start the whole process over again,” he wrote in an email to Sentient.
Factory Farms and Wild Birds Keep Threat Levels High
Biosecurity protocols do not address a persistent factor for disease spread — the conditions in which factory-farmed poultry are raised. With tens of thousands of birds confined in cramped, unsanitary spaces, factory farms are the ideal breeding grounds for diseases like bird flu.
Overcrowding combined with massive amounts of waste can make it nearly impossible to contain the spread of pathogens. On top of this, wild birds help to spread the disease, making confinement to any one farm exceptionally difficult.
For smaller farms or backyard poultry owners, maintaining biosecurity measures is also an ongoing challenge, thanks to increased exposure to wild birds and their droppings. Without the infrastructure or resources available to large-scale commercial operations, these smaller operations can be quickly wiped out.
The Bottom Line
While states like Georgia and Pennsylvania have declared themselves bird-flu free, the threat from avian flu is far from over in any part of the country. The virus continues to threaten the food system and public health, as risk of a larger pandemic — currently low — looms overhead. The process to contain the virus is ongoing, as any new outbreak can quickly undo progress, demonstrating the fragile nature of any bird-flu free announcement.
Exposing the Big Game 